A physical space is an area or space in a physical location, such as in a building, on land, in a vessel, or in another type of structure in the physical world. Access to certain physical spaces is controlled or managed for a variety of reasons.
For example, buildings in the physical world have areas, floors, rooms, partitions, sections, layers, or other types of physical spaces configured with access control mechanisms. Different physical spaces in a building can have different levels of access. For example, restrooms and hallways are generally areas with general access to everybody who may wish to use those physical spaces.
Factory floors, engine rooms, server rooms, executive offices, are examples of physical spaces with some level of restriction on access. Additional restrictions are placed on physical spaces such as electrical control rooms, fire suppression closets, wiring cabinets, for highly restricted access. This type of access control is common in many office and commercial buildings including areas such as airports, factories, military facilities, and so on.
In the virtual world, building blueprints are captured as digital or virtual resources, such as in virtual Building Information Models (BIM). BIM captures the design of the structural elements of a physical space, such as a building, physical assets within the physical space, and one or more attributes of such structural elements and assets. For example, BIM of a building includes virtual representations of the piping and plumbing, the electrical wiring, the duct systems, and so on of a physical space.